Checkbooks headed for extinction? Not so fast

Despite the ease of paying with a tap on a smartphone or swipe of a credit card, Americans don't appear ready to ditch their checkbooks just yet.

For the first time since Americans began abandoning checks for other forms of payments in the mid-1990s, the decline in check usage has slowed, according to a recent Federal Reserve study looking at the types of payments — other than cash — U.S. consumers and businesses use.

Between 2012 and 2015, the number of check payments declined by 4.4 percent per year, on average, compared with a 6.2 percent average yearly drop during the 12 prior years, the Federal Reserve said. In the three years ending in 2015, the value of all check payments only fell about 0.5 percent per year.

That might be because most people who don't like paying by check already have switched, said Matt Schulz, senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com. For some transactions — think paying your handyman — a check still may be the easiest way to pay, he added.

"If those sorts of folks can more easily incorporate mobile payments into their services, maybe that would ramp up the decline again, but it's hard to know," he said.

When we do crack open our checkbooks, it tends to be for bigger-ticket purchases.

U.S. consumers and businesses made nearly six times as many purchases with plastic as with checks last year. But checks added up to about 4.7 times the value of the card payments, the Federal Reserve study found.

Debit and credit card payments have been growing rapidly — up, on average, 7.1 percent and 8 percent each year between 2012 and 2015, respectively. Other studies have found consumers are increasingly comfortable using plastic for even small purchases like an afternoon coffee break or candy bar.

About 38 percent of people surveyed by CreditCards.com earlier this year said they would pull out a credit or debit card even when spending less than $5. That's up from 33 percent in 2014, the survey found. A majority — 58 percent — said they still stick to cash.

Credit cards were more frequently used up until the mid-2000s, but since then, debit card usage has grown rapidly.

In 2015 more than twice as many purchases were made with debit cards, though the credit card users racked up bigger charges — the 33.8 billion credit card payments made last year were worth a total of $3.16 trillion, compared with 69.5 billion debit card payments worth $2.56 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve report.